Tuesday, 30 August 2005

This is how water chestnut looks like. Best thing is this err is this a fruit or vegetable or bulb?? Gosh whatever it is, best thing is this can be eaten fresh after peeling the skin or cook it in sweet or savoury (dumplings and pan fried patties) dishes.

Water chestnut (mar thei in Cantonese) are usually grown in paddy fields in China which explains why they are so muddy. Usually I get those in a mesh bag that have already been cleaned. All I need to do is to peel them off before eating or cooking.

This round, I made a sweet soup (tong shui in Cantonese) but this one is call khang. Sorry huh I'm not Chinese educated hence I can't really tell the difference between tong shui and khang but I deducted khang is a thick broth.

This Mar Thei Khang is another easy peasy dish to cook and sorry to say I did not follow any recipe, I just guesstimate my way after tasting this at KTZ.

All I did was peel and chop water chestnuts into small pieces. Place into a pot of water together with a can of sweet cream style corn and boil. I've used some rock sugar to taste. Boil for about 15-20 minutes, then I stir in a cornstarch and water solution. How thick you want your tong shui depends on the ratio of cornstarch and water. Use more starch if you prefer thick soup. Just remember to keep stirring when you add in the solution. It's best to use potato flour as the thickening agent but I do not have any. No problem to substitute with cornflour. Bring to boil and remove from stove. Best served hot.

Note: Try not to stir too much after cooking as the soup may turn watery.

Monday, 29 August 2005

Since hubby started to frequent Indonesia in his business trips, I've asked him to get some kueh lapis (layered cake in Bahasa Melayu or Bahasa Indonesia) for me. He checked the airport but it was kinda expensive, so in his subsequent trip, he got his business partner in Jakarta, Indonesia to get him some. The kind partner got him not one but two types of kueh lapis. He got them from Nyonya Guat but he told hubby this is not the famous one. So maybe I'll only get the best one some other time.

Kueh Lapis is a rich cake consisting of thin alternating layers of batter made of butter, flour, eggs and sugar, piled on top of each other. Each layer is laid down and baked separately, making the creation of a kueh lapis an extremely laborious and time-consuming process. They have varieties too but those spiced kueh lapis that I've tried before is really lovely. The aroma is simply Heavenly.

This is the plain kueh lapis, very very rich and buttery in flavour. Pretty oily and moist. A small tiny slice served with a cup of tea would be the best way to savour this rich cake.

This one with the flowery pattern is actually the prune version.

Look... there are even slivers of prunes in between the layers.

This prune version is also very rich and buttery but kinda weird to have prunes since we're so used to the plain version. Next time, I want the spiced one, ok, darling?? Thank you *muaks*

With a rather large batch of paste made for Pan Fried Patties for IMBB#18 submission, I've gotten some sui kow (a type of dumpling in Cantonese) skin to make sui kow. Sui Kow is a type of dumplings either served in clear ikan bilis (dried anchovies in Malay) broth or deep fried.

Boil a pot of water with some ikan bilis for about 30 minutes or longer to get a pot of ikan bilis stock. Strain the stock. Prepare some choy sum and set aside.

These are the paste and sui kow skins. Majority people will add in mince pork in their sui kow paste especially those you eat in the shops but I didn't. Can add in black fungus (wood ear mushroom) and green peas to the paste too.

To assemble, place some paste on one half of the sui kow skin. Try not to over stuff your sui kow skin as the skin can breakup easily. Next, wet the skin around the paste. Fold into half.

Reboil the ikan bilis broth and add in the choy sum.

Boil some water in another pot and cook these sui kow in batches about 5 minutes. What I did was, I split one into half to test doneness in the first batch. From there I roughly gauge how long I need to cook these sui kow for the next few batches. When they're cooked, scoop them up with a slotted spoon and place into the ikan bilis broth.

Serve sui kow hot with some chili sauce, to me the best is with Kampung Koh* Garlic Chili Sauce. Yumzzz...

* Kampung Koh is a small town located near Sitiawan, Perak. This town has a few garlic chili sauce manufacturer. The famous brand was Kampung Koh and when it flourished, the rest of the world (in Malaysia actually heh) decided to use the same name as well. Now you'll have Kampung Koh chili sauce produced in Kepong (in the Klang Valley) too. I'm not really sure if it's the same producer from Kampung Koh but if anyone of you are from Sitiawan, can clear this up? Thanks.

Thursday, 25 August 2005

When I saw the announcement for this month's Is My Blog Burning (IMBB), I was like dumbfolded hahaha don't get me wrong, there is nothing wrong with Linda from At Our Table in picking the theme Summer's Flying, Let's Get Frying! It's more like, how do I say this... it's just too easy peasy for us, Asians, since most of our food were either stir fried or pan fried or deep fried. Very mind boggling especially when we have tonnes of fried food we can showcased, hehehe but nevermind, I'm in for the challenge.

For this installment, I've made a simple, fast and most importantly an easy entry. These are my Pan Fried Patties.

I've mixed together fish paste (can be bought pre-made in the wet market, I saw them too at Jusco but not sure of other supermarts); roughly chopped prawns and finely diced carrots, water chestnuts and spring onions; in a mixing bowl. For seasoning, I've added in some soya sauce, white pepper and sesame seeds oil. I do not have the exact measurement as I guesstimate my way thru. I just made sure the fish paste and diced prawns are about the same amount. So were the carrots and water chestnuts. Mixed them up evenly. I've used one spoon and wet my palm lightly with some water to prevent the paste from sticking. Using the spoon and my palm, I shaped the patties into small thin rounds. The size and thickness is entirely up to one taste. Then I pan fried them in shallow oil till golden brown.

Thank you, Linda, for hosting this round of IMBB. I can't wait for the round up as it's very exciting to see what are the entries submitted by the rest of the food bloggers around the world. I'm posting this early as I may not have access the next few days.

Since I've made a rather large batch of the paste, I've bought some sui kow (dumplings in Cantonese) skin to make some delicious dumplings in clear broth. Will post that up in the subsequent post.

Yes, we're still having birthdays... so many in August!!! Why huh? Parents get amorous on year end celelebrations is it hehehehe *AHEM*

Ok I was hesitating to post this but what the heck.. today's is moi's birthday, tomorrow's Dafthamsta's and Jesse's (the child star of Loopymeals) birthday and next week is my mom's birthday. So let's just celebrate them all in this post teehehehehe... Wishing all of you a wonderful and healthy year ahead and beyond too. May the Lord Buddha bless you with peace, joy and happiness. Here's a cake that I recycled from my blog's anniversary but it was not shown in its colourful state... Happy Burpday to all of you!!!

When one reached my age, I guess there isn't much celebration will be in thought except for reflections. I'm glad to have boiboi's birthday as a distraction and to spend time with together with him and hubby as a family of our own. There are more birthdays coming in our way too in September... watch out for the celebrations!

I've submitted my request for Afdlin's album, have you??? Hahaha I find this is a great way for him to "sell" his album. Pitied the local artistes as most of them have to succumb to record companies and distributors to decide whether they and their album can be sold or not. Afdlin has no choice but to do this his way. Hence, I would strongly suggest you guys to request Afdlin's album, FUUYO. Listen then decide how much it's worth and send him cheque/money order etc.

"IF YOU DON't LIKE THE ALBUM!! (because you could be OUT OF YOUR MIND TOO!!)...MY ONLY REQUEST IS, FOR YOU TO DESTROY THE WHOLE ALBUM! BY SENDING IT FOR RECYCLING."

"DO NOT!, I REPEAT, DO NOT PASS THE CD TO SOMEONE ELSE, DESTROY IT. THIS experience is only MEANT for you! the people who were actually initially interested in the album. this offer is valid until i run out of my last FIRST PRINT EDITION of FUUYO which will be a collector's edition bila gua mati nanti. People in general, only value something when it's not there anymore. This offer is open for anyone in this world who wants to experience the ALBUM."

"THIS IS A SERIOUS OFFER and I will bear all costs for the sending of the album. LET's show the frakking distributors the power of internet NETWORKING and the power of the people.

Wednesday, 24 August 2005

I've blogged about this before but I just wanna show another design of Madam Lee's agar-agar cake. I got this Harry Potter design agar-agar cake (RM38) for our nephew who shared the same birth date as boiboi. Since his family came all the way from outstation during the weekend, we celebrated their birthday together. This cake won everyone's heart and stomach for not being overly sweet. Plus look Ma - no messy creams!

12.30am Reached home after hubby fetched me from my parents'. He touched down KLIA at 8pm.

2.00am Only managed to sleep at this hour after some cleaning and what ever not.

7.00am Woke up and urinate but hey how come non-stop?

7.03am Ahhh finally finished. I got up but hey how come got water dripping??? I plonked myself back to the WC... could it be time???

7.05am FINALLY got up from WC and rushed outta bathroom. Noticed water dripped but who the hell cares. Woke hubby up groggily and told him "Hey, I think IT'S time!!". Hubby asked me if it's one of the signs, DUH!!! He said he's gonna check in the book.

7.30am Came out and saw him sleeping with the book wide opened and guess what? He took out the rubber sheet (baby's changing mat) and laid on the bed on my side. I woke him up and asked him what is he trying to do? He was still blur. Poor baby, he was very tired from all the running around in his biz trip. I have to almost yell at him that we need to move outta house soon since we've doctor's appointment at 10.00am.

7.45-9.15am Could you believed that I still went about doing last minute cleaning and packing? hehehe Ate some breakie and out we went.

10.10am Went direct to the labour ward, jeng jeng jeng, yes my water bag broke at 7.00am!!! I was in labour. The nurse called the doc and told him that I'm at the ward rather than meeting him at his clinic.

10.30am Hubby went about preparing the admission stuff whilst the nurses got me into the labour room. Impressive with nice wallpaper too. Nurse strapped me up with all the various contraptions so that the readings can be displayed on the monitor by the bedside and also at their workstation outside. Impressive huh?

11.30am Hubby and I were busy chatting, reading papers and laughing in there. I was only 4cm dilated. Still a long way to go.Over heard nurses outside the door...Nurse A: How is she doing?Nurse B: Seems fine, both of them laughing and very happy in there.Hahahaha... you know why? Cos I did not felt any contraction at all even though their monitor detected them!

1.00pm Now I can feel the contractions coming but I'm still not dilating.

2.30pm Pain getting intensed and they gave me pethedine. I think they overdosed me cos from then I was like drifting in and out of drowsiness. I was still in pain. Poor poor hubby was getting very tired giving me the gas mask ever so often until 7.00pm. I think the obgyn came in a few times to check on me.

7.00pm I was still drowsy. Hubby, extremely tired. I think I heard him asking me if I want epidural. I was like against this after we saw the needle that will poke thru the spine in our ante-natal class. It's no joke ok the needle is so thick that I can see light on the opposite end!!!

7.15pm Nurse asked final time whether we want to administer epidural cos she said if want they would have to do it quick before it's too late. Hubby gave green light. I think he's really tired and he can't stand to see the pain in me. I was too drowsy to fight back.

8.00pm Anaesthetist came and administer the epidural. It was a quick and painless process actually or was it that I was too drowsy to know what's happening.

8.20pm Hey presto, I was wide awake, pethidine must have worn off. Still dilating too slow. The epidural is a miracle, no more pain. Hubby happy, me also happy.

10.20pm In between the nurses were coming in and checking ever so frequently. Then suddenly the obgyn came in and he told us "It's time". Uh-oh the show is on... after huffing and puffing for 4 sessions, my boiboi came out with the help of vacuum as his head did not turned down. He came out a cone head but thank goodness there is no mark on his head. We both cried for joy when boiboi was plonked on my chest with blood and mucus. Aiks sepet (single eye lid) one wor hahaha and he has got so much hair!

And now, 3 years later... we're celebrating boiboi's 3rd Birthday. He turned out to be a very active brat, destroyer and a fast learner too. Super terror in remembering all the car logos, brands and models! And you know what, he's not a sepet after all hahahaha... Well, we wished him well and hope he would turn up to be fine lad. May Lord Buddha bless boiboi with peace and happiness.

Tuesday, 23 August 2005

Lansium Domesticum is the scientific name for Duku Langsat (Malay). They grow in clusters, about the size of very large Red Globe grapes, pale yellow skin with about 5-6 segments of soft, translucent white and juicy flesh. Taste on the tangy sweet side and usually one swallow the slippery seeds together with the flesh as it's just too troublesome to remove the seeds from the flesh. It's perfectly all right to swallow the seeds whole and nope, your head won't grow tree after swallowing them hahaha... it's a childhood joke that my grandma loved to pull on us.

Based from the short description found in Wikipedia, Duku Langsat is also known as Duku or Langsat. For other names in the various languages, check here. Well, I always get confused and I can't really tell the differences of the various species in the family of duku, langsat, dokong, duku langsat etc... It's not something that I would buy and eat hehehe cos I don't really like them cos the skin have some milky latex that make my fingers really sticky. Read here on the comparison of these fruits. These are seasonal fruits and currently they're in season in Malaysia.